Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lan (
Under the rules, drivers who fail to wear seat belts or to remind front-seat passengers to do so will be fined NT$1,500. Drivers and motorcycle riders caught talking on hand-held mobile phones while driving will be fined NT$3,000 and NT$1,500, respectively. The rules take effect on Sunday.
"Drivers or motorcycle riders should pull over to the side of the road before talking on a hand-held cellphone," Yeh said.
The minister urged drivers and motorcycle riders to be aware that talking on hand-held cellphones is also banned while waiting at a traffic light or in a traffic jam.
"The Ministry of Transportation and Communications introduced the new regulations to promote traffic safety based on both foreign and local studies on traffic accidents," Yeh said.
"Most Taiwanese people fail to fasten seat belts because of their lack of regard for self-protection and safety when driving," the minister said.
Yeh quoted data from Taipei's Wangfang Hospital (萬芳醫院) which suggested that fastening seat belts would help to reduce the number of deaths resulting from car accidents by at least 47 percent.
She also said that statistics from the US showed that the wearing of seat belts saved the lives of 25,000 people and reduced severe injuries in car accidents by 125,000 cases per year on average.
Citing statistics from Japan, the minister said that the death rate among people who don't wear seat belts is seven times greater than that of those who do.
In addition, the minister said deaths had decreased by one third since Taiwan made the wearing of seat belts by drivers and front seat passengers on freeways compulsory in 1985.
The minister also referred to research from abroad to defend the new rule on cellphone use when driving. That research says the accident rate among cellphone users during the first five minutes of a cellphone conversation is 4.3 times higher than that of those who do not use cellphones while driving.
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